


Thursday, never looking back

by lxdystardust



Series: Taang Week 2020 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Taang Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26590087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lxdystardust/pseuds/lxdystardust
Summary: Taang Week Day 2: Modern AUAfter two weeks of spring semester, Aang is fed up and ready to drop his geology class.
Relationships: Aang/Toph Beifong, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Series: Taang Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933363
Comments: 9
Kudos: 31





	Thursday, never looking back

**Author's Note:**

> I had higher hopes for this and am kinda displeased with it BUT that's okay, I love Taang and will probably one day come back and do it better.
> 
> Idk toph always be sneaking up on him according to me apparently. Also i really struggled with the world-building here ngl so I couldn’t really come up with good names for the buildings or profs. what can you do¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Inspired by tumblr user @rllyjohnrlly’s modern au, specifically this post.

Science, as Aang was learning, was absolutely not what he had thought it would be. When he was still in high school, he excitedly declared a zoology major on all of his college applications, thinking he would turn his love for animals into a lifelong career.

All it took was his first college-level biology class to quickly bury that idea. Between that and chemistry for non-majors, he felt resigned to the idea that all science classes were a bad idea for him, and that he’d better just pick the easiest one in the catalog to round out his general requirements. Which is how he found himself enrolled in the Introduction to Geology class his freshman spring semester. He’d learned the three types of rocks and the basics in high school, how hard could it be?

(the answer was very hard)  
(but slightly less hard than biology)

After the second week of class, he sat on the floor of Katara’s dorm, textbook draped across his lap as she sat at her desk, diligently working on her homework. She really excelled at the very classes that almost killed him and he admired that about her.

“Ugh!” Aang groaned, slamming his textbook shut and throwing his head back onto her bed. “Katara, this is awful.” 

She set her pen down and shifted in her chair to face him, the look on her face one of confusion and concern. “What’s the matter?” 

“I can’t do this! I hate this class,” he replied, pressing his palms into his eyes.

“Aang, what are you talking about? You can’t hate a class already, we’re only two weeks into the semester! What could possibly be so bad about it now?” Katara asked, getting up from her chair and walking over to sit across from him.

He sighed and let his hands fall back into his lap. He rolled his head to look at her. “Because it’s awful! I knew it probably wouldn’t be much fun, but I thought at least it would be pretty easy. And it’s not! It’s _so_ hard and _so_ boring and the professor is the most lame professor I have ever met.” 

(she couldn’t help but smirk at that)

“Okay, well, you’re not going to find a class that’s easy, especially in your weakest subject. It’s just not going to happen. Maybe it’ll get more interesting after the first few chapters. Those are always just introductory anyway, they’re way more boring than the rest of the class.” She could see he wasn’t convinced and added, “The drop period was over Friday, anyway, so if you’re going to take a withdrawal, you might as well wait until after the first test. Maybe it won’t be as hard as you’re expecting.” 

Aang sighed. She was right. He hated when she was right. “Fine. I’ll stick it out through the first test, but can we _please_ take a study break now?”

***  
Thursday morning, Aang walked into the lecture hall, trying his best not to drag his feet. It took all of his determination that morning to make his way to class instead of staying holed up in his dorm, playing video games until he got hungry. But he’d promised Katara and he knew he would get an earful if he broke his promise. Maybe if he just pretended he _was_ Katara for a period, he’d have more ease with the class. Katara wouldn’t sit in the back, as was his first impulse, she would sit in the very first row.

He compromised and sat about four rows back. Earbud in one ear, he set his notebook on the table and pulled out his phone, scrolling through the texts from his friends that he’d missed on his walk. He didn’t notice when a dark-haired girl sat in the seat next to him until she tapped on his notebook. Startled, he yanked out the earbud and looked at her. “Um, hello?”

The girl looked at him 

(he couldn’t help but notice how pale her eyes were and the weird quality to her gaze that he couldn’t pinpoint)

and said, “You normally sit all the way in the back. What are you doing up here now? We haven’t even had a test. Did you get in trouble or something?” 

His cheeks felt warm and he knew he was blushing. “No, I just felt like maybe I’d learn better closer to the front. This stuff has been kind of hard for me so far, I guess.” 

The look on her face was a little unsettling, like she was staring straight through him. She finally shrugged, turning away from him. “What’s so hard about geology?”

“I don’t know. I guess science classes just don’t come very easily to me.”

“Well lucky for you, geology is, like, as easy as they get,” she said. He didn’t feel especially reassured, but smiled a little anyway.

“So what you’re saying is you’ll help me study?” Aang asked sheepishly.

She snorted, but replied, “Maybe I will. What’s your major, anyway?” 

“Oh, um,” he stuttered, feeling the redness in his face deepening and rubbing his neck in embarrassment. “I was a zoology major, but right now I’m undeclared.” He wanted to ask her the same question, wanted suddenly to know everything about this brazen, somewhat guarded girl who had sat next to him (and had noticed that it was not his normal seat), but was cut off by the professor calling the class’s attention to the lectern.

***

Seventy-five painstaking minutes of trying

(and failing) 

to pay attention to the powerpoint in front of him instead of the dark-haired girl leaned back in the seat next to him later, the class was dismissed. The girl had stood, grabbing her bag, and Aang panicked for a moment, trying to think of something to say. He finally settled on asking if he could walk her to her next class.

She paused, turning her head towards him. “Well, it’s all the way over in the Humanities building.”

“That’s okay, that’s on the way to my dorm, and I don’t have another class for an hour, anyway.” He swore he saw her smile as she rolled her eyes and said, “Fine. You can walk with me.” 

They talked the whole way there, never seeming to run out of topics. He was disappointed at how short the walk felt, having so much more to ask her. He’d found out she was an architecture major with a lifelong special interest in geology, lived in the freshman dorms by the Physical Sciences lecture hall, and that despite being blind, she was as in-tune with her surroundings as anyone. It was only after they said their goodbyes that he realized he’d never learned her name.

***

Her name, as it turned out, was Toph.

Every Tuesday and Thursday over the next three weeks, they sat next to each other and Aang walked her to her next class. He actually found motivation to study his notes for the first time, if only for the fact that the recordings she shared with him featured their conversations in the background of the lecture. 

Once, he had been running late after sleeping through his alarms, and while his first impulse had been to go back to sleep and skip his first class of the day, he bolted out of bed and rushed to get dressed, worrying that someone would take his seat next to Toph.

(or worse, she wouldn’t even notice)

He nearly ran all the way across campus. Heart pounding, he snuck through the doorway as the professor lectured on and slipped into his usual seat next to Toph. She lifted her head; something he couldn’t quite place flashed over her face.  
(relief?)

“Finally decided to show up, huh?” she whispered.

He started to explain himself, but stopped short, deciding on a better way to embarrass himself. “Yeah. I got caught up trying to figure out why you’re so good at this class.” 

“Did you figure it out?” 

“It’s because you don’t take anything for granite.” He looked over to catch the way the corner of her lips tugged upwards through the taken-aback look on her face.

“That was awful. Don’t do that again,” she hissed at him.

“Okay, okay,” he conceded, chuckling to himself. “You know what I would’ve been if I hadn’t shown up today?” 

“What’s that?”

“A skipping stone.” 

The irritated expression she wore intensified, fending off the smile he so desperately wanted to see. “Seriously, you have _got_ to stop doing that. I don’t like puns, especially when they’re that bad.” 

“My sediments exactly.” He almost expected her to hit him, but was delighted to hear a giggle escape. A warm feeling spread through his chest and he knew then that he would spend every last moment he had for the rest of her life trying to make her laugh again.

***

“You guys!” Aang exclaimed, slamming the door to Sokka’s apartment closed a little harder than he had meant to. He continued into the living room, all but throwing himself onto the couch next to Katara without so much as a “hello” to her, Sokka, or Suki. “I had the most _amazing_ date today.” 

Sokka looked up from where he sat, getting his hair braided, between Suki’s legs. “You had a date? With who?” 

“Was it that girl from your geology class?” Katara asked. 

“Yes! Her name is Toph and I finally got her number and we’ve been talking, like, non-stop,” he blurted all at once.

“Slow down!” Katara giggled. “Are you going to tell us about the date?” 

“Right, so I’ve sat next to her in geology since I’ve been wanting to do better in that class. That’s been a bad idea as far as paying more attention, but spirits, it’s been the _best_. I was almost late this morning because I slept through my alarms.” Seeing the admonishing look on Katara’s face, he added, “I actually got up as soon as I realized and went to class, don’t worry, _Momtara_. Anyway, I got to class just as the prof was starting the powerpoint, and when I first walked in, I was worried someone else might have taken the seat next to her that I’ve been sitting in, but no one had. And she actually seemed like she was looking for me. I mean, she can’t see, but still, when I finally got there and sat down, I swear it looked like she was happy to see me.” 

Not leaving room for Sokka to make a disparaging joke, Aang recounted the jokes he’d told her,

(which he definitely stayed up several nights in a row to come up with) 

how she’d acted like she’d hated them, but he’d caught her snickering a few times. 

“So you asked her out after class?” Suki asked.

Aang blushed and ran a hand through his short hair. “Not exactly.” He held up his hands in protest of his friends’ exclamations. “I always walk her to her next class because it’s on the way to my dorm and I always want to keep talking to her. Well, we get all the way to the Humanities building and she looks at me and says, ‘I don’t really feel like going to this class today.’” 

“She skipped class?” Suki asked with a mock-scandalous tone. “Maybe you two _are_ meant for each other.” 

“I know!” Aang said, ignoring the jab entirely. “And, Katara, don’t give me that look. I would have convinced her to go to class, but the opportunity was there and I couldn’t pass up taking her to lunch.” Grinning, he told them about how Toph had loosened up while they ate, even agreeing to try his favorite vegan restaurant in the main commons, how cute she was when she smiled at him. She had even agreed to a study date the following night.

He couldn’t wipe the smile from his face when he asked, “So would you guys be okay if she came to hang out with us this weekend?”


End file.
